the distance of glass dreams
by seleneswan
Summary: 100 themes. "You're all that I have left," he told her desperately. And with tears welling up in her eyes, with hurt flashing on her face, he spoke again, bitterly. "But we're running out of chances." —Draco/Hermione.


**emily! this is for you. happy belated. (:**

**. . . **

Pairing: Draco/Hermione  
Prompts: "I broke my heart when I broke yours, and for that I am so very sorry.", watching the milky way spin, "Sometimes it's just better to walk away.", running out of chances

* * *

_**.**_

_The_

_**D i s t a n c e**_

_Of_

_G l a s s D r e a m s _

_._

_._

_( o n e h u n d r e d t h e m e s )_

_._

_

* * *

_

_w r i t t e n b y_

s e l e n e s w a n

* * *

.

.

_Introduction_

Draco was. Hermione was. And so they were.

.

_Love_

She wasn't sure what she was thinking when she had decided to brew Amortentia, on her own, in her first year—much before any other witch had done it, or any witch her age had even heard of it at all. But she was Hermione and she succeeded no matter what. And so, when she inevitably succeeded, she took a sniff, she smelled something indistinguishable, something she had never before smelled.

_._

_Light_

His hair was like lightning, she thought once, comparing its pale hue to the white flashes that glittered across the sky in the dark of the night.

_._

_Dark_

She had always thought storms a terrifying sort of beautiful.

_._

_Seeking_ _Solace_

It was when he called her that _word_ that she ran, ran, ran, and she regretted ever meeting him in the first place.

_._

_Break_ _Away_

It was his first full-blown argument with his father, and all he was left with was the stinging sensation of being slapped but not by a hand—a magically inflicted wound.

_._

_Holy_

Muggle Studies was her thing, she discovered, with an amused smile twitching on her lips, when ironically enough, during wintertime, Draco mispronounced holy as holly.

_._

_Innocence_

She wondered one day, in passing, what he would have looked like as a small boy- void of the weight that seemed to be bearing upon his shoulders lately.

_._

_Chemistry_

But Ron, sigh. Ron got to her. He laughed and grinned and made her angry and happy and frustrated and teary and he was so much emotional chaos…and she wasn't sure.

_._

_Breathe_ _Again_

It was times like these, when they went home for the holidays and she went skiing with her mum and dad that she felt, up in the icy drifts, that she could finally breathe again.

_._

_Memory_

She was homesick…homesick for Hogwarts.

_._

_Insanity_

They had gotten into a row again in an empty classroom where she had returned to so as to retrieve her book bag, and accidentally, somehow, amidst the sour words and bitter glares he had pinned her against the wall. And then, it all stopped. He froze, backed up, and left.

_._

_Misfortune_

Sometimes, Draco wished he hadn't had the misfortune of being born to a pureblood family, hadn't been born to someone like his father.

_._

_Smile_

And amidst it all, even as they grew older and the world fell apart, she still took the time to stretch her lips upward, her eyes glittering with laughter of sadness and happiness.

_._

_Silence_

It was all that was between them anymore.

_._

_Questioning_

Ron was curious. And he wondered, offhandedly, why he would catch Hermione staring, with something not so discernable in her expression, at Draco Malfoy.

_._

_Blood_

He dreamt of it, again, and awoke screaming.

_._

_Rainbow_

They had taken a trip to Hogsmeade in the spring, and she had caught his attention when, with her Muggle skills, had made a rainbow out of water and the light of the sun.

_._

_Gray_

It was the color of her wooly sweater that she always seemed to wear whenever she was in the library.

_._

_Fortitude_

He had thought himself incapable of admiring someone—anyone at all, really—but her resiliency towards anything, to the way that people treated her, the way that he treated her and how she always stood up, even after she infrequently fell made something twinge within him—made him develop something small, perhaps, respect.

_._

_Vacation_

And when he went to sleep at night, under thecover of darkness, he allowed himself to think of a happier place.

_._

_Mother Nature_

He found himself finding _her_ standing at the outskirts of the black lake, peering up at the sky as if wondering where, why, and how she got there.

_._

_Cat_

Her stupid Kneazle kept finding itself in his dirty clothes hamper, and he couldn't help but be exasperated every time he found it in there.

_._

_Duality_

She glanced back and forth between the two, at Ron who was all riled up and Draco, whose arrogant posture screamed superiority, and wondered how the two could even manage to stay in the same room together without turning everything around them into fire and ice at the same time, creating utter destruction.

_._

_Law of Fysics_

It was hard for him to understand all this Muggle nonsense—like that nonsense they called physics and friction and the space-time continuum, but there was something strangely _gravitational_ between the two of them, almost as if he came cascading back at her at 9.8 meters per second squared.

_._

_Tears_

And when she laughed, he could see the tears fill her eyes with mirth.

_._

_Foreign_

He was practically from a different planet—she didn't think she would ever understand him, she thought idly as she fingered the letter he had written her.

_._

_Sorrow_

"I broke my heart when I broke yours, and for that, I am so very sorry," she whispered, pain lancing through her normally clear expression.

_._

_Happiness_

He couldn't bear to see her, to see _him_, that Weasley. To see them…happy.

_._

_Under the Rain_

She found him drenched, staring up at the dark sky as the raindrops beat down on him. And there was something so cleansing about that rain that when she walked into it, she felt as if everything bad had been washed away and she was clean.

_._

_Moth_

She always wondered why, when some moths were as beautiful as any other winged-insect, that butterflies were always considered better. That day, she discovered that although butterflies were popular and filled with life, it was the moth that she liked better, what withthe subdued sort of elegance that it had about it.

_._

_Night_

As she watched the Milky Way spin upon the nighttime ceiling of the Great Hall, she wondered what fate held for her.

_._

_Expectations_

There _was_ an equation for happiness, she discovered. Expectations divided by reality.

_._

_Run_

He wished he could run away, sometimes, to some place far where his father could never reach him.

_._

_Hold My Hand_

She didn't know what had prompted her to do such a thing, but her fingers slid through the spaces between his and squeezed his hand ever so softly.

_._

_Precious Treasure_

Ron and Harry…they meant a lot to her. But it scared her to realize that Draco…he was everything.

_._

_Eyes_

His were grey, she discovered. She wondered perhaps if they should have been green, with how jaded he seemed.

_._

_Found Ya!_

It was when she jumped out of nowhere, laughing hysterically before slapping his arm, screaming "Tag, you're it!" did he realize that Muggle Studies, although the class was essentially pointless, may be worth something after all.

_._

_Dreams_

She had her first nightmare in seven years the night, and it was about him, about a tattoo on his arm, and about a dark power that gripped her in fear.

_._

_Rated_

"On a scale of one to ten, one being horrendously ugly and ten being absolutely gorgeous, how would you rate Draco Malfoy's looks?" Rita Skeeter quizzed. Hermione twitched, and walked away.

_._

_Teamwork_

They worked together in complete harmony, as if they were never meant to be apart.

_._

_Standing Still_

It was when she used the Time Turner and there was that split second that time froze did she take into account that reliving parts of her life, seeing that expression on his face one more time…it made her happy.

_._

_Dying_

He wished he could escape.

_._

_Two Roads_

And so he decided he would take the one less traveled by, and it _would_ make all the difference, even if he had to fight to the ends of the earth to make that difference happen.

_._

_Illusion_

His laugh couldn't possibly be that beautiful.

_._

_Family_

His mother was all that he had left—he might as well have been dead to his father.

_._

_Creation_

"Life is like a flower. As a bud, it's beautiful, and when the petals finally emerge, it's beautiful, and even as it's withering away, it still has a certain beauty to it," she spoke to him. "No matter what happens in life, there's always some beauty."

_._

_Childhood_

She wished things were simple again, like when she was a child.

_._

_Destruction_

There was nothing left between them after their fight but the shards of what once was laying between them, waiting to be picked up.

_._

_Breaking the Rules_

She knew she shouldn't see him, especially after all that happened. It wasn't even like there was anything there in the first place between them, but it was somehow so forbidden. But she had to, and so she did.

_._

_Greed_

He wanted her, desperately.

_._

_Deep in Thought_

She wondered what people would think…if they were to ever be.

_._

_Mask_

He hid from everyone, even her, behind his carefully crafted mask of lies and deceit so that he may save everyone else but himself.

_._

_Tower_

The astronomy tower was theirs, too.

_._

_Waiting_

He would spend his life like this, for her.

_._

_Danger Ahead_

He was too risky, she thought, rationally. He was too much impulsiveness and he was too much impracticality. And somehow, she wanted to risk it all, to jump off the cliff and ignore all the danger signs because being with him was somehow worth it. But it wasn't realistic and she _knew_ that she never could.

_._

_Sacrifice_

"Sometimes, it's just better to walk away," she whispered softly, her fingers trailing down the side of his face. "Sometimes, it's better to let go."

_._

_Kick in the Head_

How Ron ended up with a concussion was hard to remember, but he knew, instinctively, that it had something to do with Draco Malfoy.

_._

_No Way Out_

She was trapped, she had to make this decision, she was between a rock and a hard place, and she just wished that she could take the rock and dig a hole with it in the ground and burrow away.

_._

_Rejection_

But her decision wasn't necessary, because, the next day, she discovered that he was with someone else. Someone named Astoria.

_._

_Tiny_

It was small, the crack in her heart, and it was something that not even the healers and St. Mungo's could fix.

_._

_Magic_

But even being the brightest witch of her age couldn't possibly make her the strongest.

_._

_Do Not Disturb_

He was so closed off to the world, then, when he discovered, finally, his engagement. Astoria. She wasn't a bad person by any means, but he had it so driven into his mind that he had freedom and it got taken away and—oh, how he _hated_ his father.

_._

_Multitasking_

Perhaps she could be a balancing act, a tight-rope walker at the circus. Perhaps she could.

_._

_Horror_

And somehow, Ron developed insight. And he confronted her, and she was astounded and speechless and left frozen. And he cast her a dejected look, a hurt look, a pained look. And he walked away.

_._

_Traps_

In her dream, she was running, running, running. But she was never fast enough.

_._

_Playing the Melody_

He once heard her humming to herself, a certain rhythm in her walk, a flourish to her movements, and rather unconsciously, started humming himself that same tune the next day.

_._

_Hero_

He would always be the villain, wouldn't he.

_._

_Annoyance_

_He needed to stop acting like he was doomed, like his existence was all torture,_ she thought to herself with a grimace, _because really, there were always bright spots in life. _And then, rather self-centeredly, she thought of herself.

_._

_67%_

Math and numbers and logic never seemed to work with them. There was a 100% chance that they could never be together, and somehow, when they were alone, the number seemed to descend to nothing. There was a 100% chance that Ron would come back for her, but when she found herself tangled in sheets with _him_ for the first time, she couldn't help but think that was impossible.

_._

_Obsession_

He needed her like he needed water, like he needed air, like he needed life.

_._

_Soft_

And in the crowded hallway, his pinky found hers.

_._

_Dance_

She twirled and twirled and twirled and all she could see was him.

_._

_Are You Challenging Me?_

They were competitive, and they argued, and they fought, and they spat bitter words at each other (words that sometimes spoke of truth, sometimes spoke of reality), but they were so cohesive and when he, in a fit of frustration, would press his lips to hers, hard and dominating, they would both melt and soften and challenges seemed to dissolve to nothing.

_._

_Mirror_

When Ron looked at her like she was trash, she wondered how horrible of a person she was. And as she stared in the mirror, all she could see was her wrongs.

_._

_Blinded_

They ran from reality.

_._

_Test_

There were a select few times in her life that she felt as though she were really, truly being challenged, and as Ron demanded from her answers, explanations, she couldn't help but think that this was perhaps the hardest test of them all.

_._

_Drink_

She was water, she was life, and he wanted to drink her dry.

_._

_Starvation_

He hungered for her.

_._

_Words_

And when she told him she needed space, he felt as if his words had been taken away from him.

_._

_Pen and Paper_

He owled her from across the building, and she never replied.

_._

_Can You Hear Me?_

He felt as though he were communicating to a wall.

_._

_Heal_

She came back in a flurry, throwing herself into his arms, and he wondered what had happened that time in the first place. But it didn't matter, because he was whole.

_._

_Frozen_

He wished he could have stopped time.

_._

_Spiral_

And then, out of nowhere, as fragile as glass as they were, they shattered, and were spiraling downward, doomed for destruction.

_._

_Anger_

He slammed a fist into the wall, frustrated, furious, but helpless. She was impossible.

_._

_Guardian_

She needed to feel safe. And he was a rush, he was thrilling, he made her want to take risks and never look back, but she took one too many risks, and now…now she needed something soft and warm and safe.

_._

_Pain_

She left.

_._

_Through the Fire_

His father was furious with him. But he couldn't even bring himself to care.

_._

_Trinity_

Not even religion could save her now.

_._

_Drowning_

She was slipping, slipping, slipping…

_._

_All That I Have_

"You're all that I have left," he told her desperately. And with tears welling up in her eyes, with hurt flashing on her face, he spoke again, bitterly. "But we're running out of chances."

_._

_Give Up_

He resigned himself. There could be no more.

_._

_Last Hope_

But there was always a silver lining on a cloud.

_._

_Advertisement_

He was a walking ad for a funeral parlor.

_._

_In the Storm_

It was strange how they kept meeting under cover of the rain. And as the lightning tore through the sky, her lips met his once again.

_._

_Safety First_

She wouldn't break her own heart again.

_._

_Puzzle_

They fit together perfectly.

_._

_Solitude_

She would never be alone again.

_._

_Relaxation_

His lips pressed to hers, and it was slow and easy and she felt like she could breathe and then he walked away, and somehow, she knew, even though he was gone, it was only for now. And like a burst of fresh air, she smiled. Because she knew he would return.

* * *

**afterthoughts: **I feel like this ended kind of ambiguously. Like almost open-ended but not. Anyways, happy happy _happy_ belated birthday, Emily! I hope you had an amazing spectacular beautiful day. (:


End file.
